How It All Started
by TigerUnknown
Summary: After an incident with his previous partner, Dakota gets a new time-travelling partner whose name sounds like candy dish. But on their very first mission together, something goes terribly wrong. Dakota feels like he has no other choice but to go back in time to fix everything. Rated M because of character death.
1. New Partner

It's been a rough week. He was one of the top agents, but within one day, he hit rock bottom.

While on his last mission, his partner died. He did feel bad for what happened, but he feels like he should feel worse. Vinnie guessed that he felt disconnected to what happened since he didn't see his partner die. He didn't even see the body. Apparently, his partner fell into a trap and died.

After his partner died and they failed their mission, Mr. Block, their boss, scowled him for not working with his partner as a team. Which was true. He didn't really like his partner. They argued a lot. On that day, they got into a heated argument about how to accomplish their mission properly. They got fed up with each other and went their separate ways. Partners are supposed to stick together and look after one another, but they didn't do that on that day.

Now, Mr. Block was furious with him. Not only did he fail a really important mission, his partner was also one of the best agents, even though Dakota would disagree with that statement. Mr. Block was so mad at him that he downgraded him to the lowest of the low. Now, instead of getting "Saving the world" type missions, he'll be getting pointless petty missions. He didn't mind that. He knew he can climb his way back to the top.

Vinnie sighed. Since he lost his partner, now he was getting a new one. Part of him was relieved. He wanted a new partner for years. Years? He wasn't sure if it was for years. Being a time traveller, you kind of lose track of time.

He was waiting in a room for his new partner. He didn't know much about him. All he knew was that his last name sounded like candy dish and that he failed the field test miserably, but he did pass the written test with flying colours.

Which, Vinnie thought that was weird. How was it possible for someone to get a hundred percent on the written test, but zero on the field test? Even though it was years since he took the written test, he remembered how hard it was and how easy the field test was. It made it sound like his new partner knew pretty much everything about time travel, but he's incompetent. Oh well.

He's been told that this guy has been on the waiting list for a time travelling partner for a really long time. Like, a really really long time. Seems like no one wants to be his partner...

He figured that he'll be the one to give him a chance.

Dakota kind of regretted coming early. His new partner wasn't even here yet and now he's stuck with his own thoughts.

He barely even spoke to his new partner. Well, technically, they never spoke to each other at all. There was a middleman passing on messages between the both of them. Even then, there weren't that many messages to each other. His new partner wanted to dress up like they were in the 70s, which, Dakota completely agreed with it. Instead of wearing that uncomfortable suit and sunglasses, which he used to wear, now he's wearing a really comfortable tracksuit with sunglasses. After he realized how comfortable that tracksuit was, he bought five more. One for every day of the week. Well, except for Sunday. There wasn't seven of the same tracksuit in stock.

Dakota was suddenly snapped out of his thoughts as he heard someone approaching the room. He quickly looked at his watch. At least his partner wasn't late. In fact, his new partner was going to be exactly on time.

The door opened and he was surprised.

He wasn't sure what to expect from this new partner, but he didn't expect him to be older than him. And now he was slightly embarrassed. Not because his new partner was older than him, he was embarrassed because his new partner was dressed like he was in the 1870s, not 1970s, like he thought they agreed on.

Whoops.

They both looked at each other in silents. Dakota got himself ready to be yelled at for wearing the wrong outfit, but that's not what happened.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Dakota! I am Cavendish, your new partner," Cavendish announced.

Dakota had to force himself not to laugh. Did his new partner seriously called him Mr. Dakota? He came to the conclusion that he was right. His new partner was a nerd. Since he liked to tease and bicker with his partners. He decided to act like the complete opposite to the impression that his new partner gave. "Ey Cav! No need to call me Mr. Dakota, just call me Vinnie! And yes, I'm your new bro," Dakota nudged his new partner with his elbow.

Cavendish's smile quickly turned into a frown, "I am not your new "Bro"," Cavendish used air quotes when he said, bro. "I'd prefer if you took this partnership more seriously."

A part of Dakota regretted what he said. Even though he was the one with more time travelling experience, his new partner looked a bit intimidating. He felt like he made a bad first impression. He decided to change the subject. "Alright, we already have a new mission. We're supposed to go back in time to 1984 and take down some guy before he goes on to become a serial killer or whatever."

That seemed to catch Cavendish off guard. He was visibly nervous. "Alright," he agreed.

Dakota looked at Cavendish and waited for him to say something else. Then he realized that Cavendish was doing the same thing. That's when Dakota remembered that Cavendish was new to all of this. He had to keep reminding himself that because Cavendish was older than him. "Okay, follow me, I'll show you our new time machine!" Dakota waved Cavendish to follow him and that's what he did.

They walked down the hall to the parking lot without saying much. Their time machine didn't look that bad, but it looked old. It was, of course, not as good as the time machine he used to have.

"Well, here it is," Dakota announced.

Cavendish didn't say anything, but he looked excited.

Vinnie decided to hop into the front seat, leaving the driver seat available for Cavendish. He thought he would be nice and let Cavendish have the honour to drive them to their first mission.

Cavendish hesitated.

"Come on, what are you waiting for? Time waits for no one. Well, except for us, because, you know, we're time travellers," Dakota wiggled his eyebrows.

Cavendish got into the driver seat and looked around. He pressed some buttons and then they were on their way. Cavendish looked around in awe while driving through the timestream.

Seeing this, Dakota realized that Cavendish probably never time travelled before. Which means he probably never drove a time machine. Suddenly Dakota regretted letting Cavendish drive.

He braced himself right before they left the timestream, which was the right thing to do. As soon as they got out of the time stream, Cavendish struggled to regain control of the time machine. They swirled around but Cavendish was able to regain control.


	2. Mission

Dakota sighed in relief. He can feel his heart pounding like a drum. A part of him was happy that Cavendish was keeping his eyes on the road. He didn't want him to see how nervous he was.

"Hey, could you drive over there?" Dakota pointed to the side of the road.

Cavendish obliged.

"Alright, just drive up here," Dakota continued to point the way, "Great! Stop here."

"Here? Why?" Cavendish questioned.

A speaker turned on which startled Cavendish. "Hello! Welcome to Burger Party, may I take your order?" a voice coming from the speaker asked.

Dakota unbuckled himself and leaned over Cavendish. Which made Cavendish incredibly uncomfortable. He rolled down the window.

"Yeah! Can I have a Dubble Party Burger with extra cheese and a large soda? Hmmm, hey Cav, you want anything?" He turned to look at Cavendish who looked incredibly uncomfortable and giving Dakota a weird look.

"We're supposed to be on a mission right now! This is incredibly unprofessional!" Cavendish complained.

"Shhhhh! Don't talk so loud, we don't want the fast food employee to know that we're time travellers." Dakota used his thumb to point at the microphone.

Cavendish gasped. He knew that Dakota was talking loud enough for the employee to hear him.

"Uhhhh..." a voice came from the speaker.

Dakota spoke up, "Yeah, also, we'll get a large fries and some water. Are you sure you don't want anything Cav? I can share the fries if you want. I'm also gettin' you some water just in case. There are two cup holders for a reason, may as well not let them go to waste."

Cavendish glared angrily at Dakota, "I don't want anything."

"Your loss," Dakota shrugged, "That'll be all."

"A Dubble Party Burger, with a large fries, a large soda, and water?" the employee repeated.

"Yup, don't forget the extra cheese!"

"Drive up to the window to pay and receive your meal."

"Thank you! Alright, Cav, drive up a little," Dakota rolled the window back up and sat back down in his seat.

"Could you stop calling me that?" Cavendish protested as he drove up a bit.

"You're name is a bit of a mouth full."

"It's not my name, it's my last name"

"Than what is your actual name?"

Cavendish did not reply.

"Come on, tell me!" Dakota shook Cavendish's shoulder.

Cavendish got even more annoyed. He hated physical contact, "Stop!"

"What's the big deal? Is it embarrassing?" Dakota got closer and whispered with a grin, "Is it inappropriate?"

Cavendish couldn't take it anymore. Dakota was too close. He pushed him back to his seat, "Cut it out, you ninny!"

Dakota couldn't stop himself from laughing.

Cavendish frowned, "I'm glad you find amusement in my misery."

Dakota was sure that Cavendish didn't mean that to be funny, but that just made him burst out laughing even louder. "Did you seriously... Just called me a ninny? Hahahaha! Do people even use that word anymore?"

As Dakota struggled to catch his breath, an employee knocked on the car window. Frowning, Cavendish pressed a couple of buttons until the window started to go down.

"That'll be eight dollars and twenty-five cents," the employee said.

Cavendish glared at Dakota who was still laughing.

Dakota noticed this and tried to stop laughing, "Okay, okay, hahahaha, I'll pay this time," he reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet while still giggling.

Cavendish expected Dakota to hand him the money and then he'll pass it to the employee, but instead, Dakota leaned over Cavendish again to pay the employee himself. Cavendish tried his best to lean back as much as he can avoiding touching him.

Dakota sat back down and started to cough from laughing too much.

Soon after, the employee handed Cavendish a bag with their food. He tossed it at Dakota in frustration.

"Hahaha- hey! What did the burger do to you?"

Cavendish then grabbed the drinks and put them into the cup holders. "Thank you," Cavendish thanked the employee, rolled the window back up, and drove off.

Dakota was able to breathe again. He opened his bag and took out his burger. It's been a while since he laughed that much.

"That was extremally unprofessional," Cavendish scowled.

Dakota took a bite of his burger, "I know right? They forgot the extra cheese."

"Not that!" Cavendish growled and took a deep breath, "I thought you were some kind of professional."

Dakota swallowed his food, "What gave you that impression?"

"I was told you were a top agent. I should have known it was a fib. It was too good to be true."

They both went silent.

Cavendish felt a bit bad about what he just said so he spoke up again. "My apologies. We barely know each other. I shouldn't doubt your skills."

"Nah, it's fine."

They kept driving. Dakota continued to finish his meal while telling Cavendish where to go. It was a bit dark outside, so Cavendish was grateful that Dakota knew where to go. They parked in a parking lot next to an old building.

"We're here," Dakota announced while finishing the last bit of his soda.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, he's hiding out here," he threw the now empty soda cup to the back seat.

"Okay."

They both stepped out of the car. Dakota stretched a bit but Cavendish rubbed his hands together nervously. Dakota noticed this and tried to reassure him, "Hey, don't sweat it. We'll just be in and out." He opens the back of the car to retrieve some supplies, he passed some stuff like a laser gun and a communicator to Cavendish.

Cavendish nodded.

"We're supposed to pin him down and cuff him. Then we'll drop him off at the police station in this timeline. He's already a wanted criminal. So we'll just push him into the police station and run off. Got it?"

"Yes, I understand."

"Good, let's go."


	3. Worst Outcome

They both walk up to the building. Since it was old and rundown, it wasn't hard to break in. The front door was locked, but there were broken windows nearby. It was reasonably easy for Dakota to get it, but it was harder for Cavendish.

They moved stealthily through the building. Dakota occasionally looked back to make sure Cavendish was doing fine. He noticed that Cavendish was smiling. He didn't look nervous anymore. He actually looked really excited. "Sheesh, what's with the smile?" he whispered to him.

"My apologies," he tried to hide his smile, "It's just... This is my first real mission. I've been waiting years for this moment. I know it doesn't live up to saving the world type missions, but after being told I would never become a time traveller, here I am."

After hearing that, Dakota smiled. Even though Cavendish is older than him, he was acting like a kid in a candy store. Which, because of that, Dakota also felt a bit pressured. He has to make sure this mission goes to plan. He can already imagen them celebrating a successful mission.

Since the building was huge, Dakota suggested splitting up. If they found the guy, they would tell each other through the communicator they brought with them. So Cavendish went off and now Dakota was alone with his thoughts again.

Even though they've been partners for less than a day, he already knew that Cavendish was better than his previous partner. Sure they bickered with each other, but that was way different than what his old partner and he did. Instead of bickering and teasing one another, they would argue and yell at each other. That was not fun.

He also felt bad for Cavendish. No one else wanted to be his partner because he failed the field test. He didn't think that was a big deal. He almost failed the written test and he became one of the top agents. So why can't the same thing happen to Cavendish? He'll never become a top agent if no one gives him a chance.

"Who are you and why are you here?!" Dakota heard someone yell nearby. Lost in thought, he didn't realize that we walked right into danger.

The guy was pointing a gun at him so he raised his hands up in defeat. He knew if the guy found out the real reason he was there, he would be dead. So Dakota decided to make up a lie, "I was walking my dog, the poor thing got loose and ran off into this building."

The guy looked at him suspiciously.

Just then, Cavendish appeared at the other door behind the guy. He saw what was happening and decided to step in.

Dakota's heart sank. He knew Cavendish did not have enough field experience to tackle an armed man down.

Instead of attacking the man, Cavendish took out his laser gun and pointed it at the man, "Put your hands in the air!" Cavendish yelled.

This startled the man. He turned around and shoot Cavendish. Cavendish did not have enough time to react. Before he knew it, he was shot in the chest. The pain caused him to drop his laser gun. Soon after, the man shot him a few more times until Cavendish fell to the ground.

Dakota was in complete shock. He felt like throwing up. He forced himself to snap out of it.

Out of anger, he took out his laser gun and shot at the man straight in the head. The man collapsed to the ground.

Just looking at him, he knew he was dead, but just in case, he ran up to him and disarmed him. After that, he focused all his attention on Cavendish.

It looked bad. Really bad. Cavendish was bleeding a lot, but he was still alive, barely. "Cavendish!" Dakota yelled.

Cavendish moaned in pain.

Dakota grabbed Cavendish and flipped him over. He took off his tracksuit jacket and placed it on Cavendish's chest. He put pressure on the wound to try to stop the bleeding.

Cavendish started to cough up blood. This told Dakota that one or more of the bullets shot through his lungs.

"Come on Cav, hang in there," he knew that his partner didn't have much time left. He tried to lift Cavendish over his shoulder to drag him to the time machine.

"Dakota... I-I-I'm sorry," Cavendish apologized as blood spilled from his mouth. "It was foolish," Cavendish coughed, "F-f-for me to-"

"Woah, no need to apologize. I-it's okay, don't worry about it," Dakota struggled to carry Cavendish. He can feel his partner's warm blood dripping onto him.

Then, Dakota can feel Cavendish go limp. His heart skipped a beat. He quickly and carefully put Cavendish back down. Putting his ear on Cavendish's chest, he can tell that he wasn't breathing anymore. Grabbing Cavendish's wrist, he checked for a puls. To his relief, there was a puls, so he started giving CPR.

He learned how to give CPR. It was one of the things you had to learn to be a time traveller. But it was years ago and he never had to use it. He was sure he was doing something wrong but he didn't know what else to do.

Even trying to resuscitate him, it didn't seem to work. Dakota heard a cracking sound. Which gave him an extremely bad feeling. He was sure he accidentally broke a rib. When that happened, he stopped.

Exhausted, emotionally and physically. Dakota grabbed Cavendish's wrist again. Checking for a puls, but this time, there was nothing. He just sat there in defeat.

This was way worse than when is previous partner died. Dakota shouted out to nothing and started to cry.


	4. Redo

After a while, he stopped crying. He just sat there next to his partner's body. This was too much. It was like a terrible dream. It almost didn't feel real. A Part of him looked at Cavendish expecting him to get up again and tell him that everything was fine. But he knew there was no way that'll happen.

He started to think the unthinkable, "I could go back in time to stop this from happening," he said out loud to comfort himself, "After all, I am a time traveller... But that's a big no-no." Dakota sighed, "It's like the biggest no-nos of time travel. Not only would I be crossing timelines, which is another rule not to break, I could cause some sort of rip in time." A part of him wished he studied more about time travel. He wasn't even sure what are consequences of doing something like that. It must be really bad if it was the number one rule of time travel.

Dakota stood up. He no longer cared about the consequences of it. He already knew he'd probably be fired if Mr. Block found out that he lost another partner. He didn't really care about losing his job right now. He just wanted everything to rewind as if none of this happened.

Walking to his time machine, he thought about some stuff. Even though he was partners with his previous partner for years, he didn't even ponder about going back in time to save him, and yet, a guy he only knew for less than twenty-four hours, he felt like the only thing he can do is to go back in time and save his life.

Dakota got into the driver seat of the car, entered some stuff on the keypad, and went back in time.

There he was, crossing his own timeline. Breaking so many rules at once.

Looking around, he made sure to go back in time before they arrived at the building. He drove the time machine to the other side of the building to hid it.

Waiting nearby, as soon as he saw the past versions of themselves, he felt a strange pain in his chest. He wasn't sure if it was because he was crossing his own timeline, or it was because he felt extremely nervous and unsure about what to do.

He decided to do nothing for now. He simply watched the past versions of themselves going on with their mission.

He struggles to breathe properly as he followed them. When his past-self and Cavendish agreed to split up, that's when he decided to take action.

He followed his past-self.

Dakota thought about talking to him and telling him about what was going to happen. But it would take too much time and by then, it could be too late. Even then, he knew himself. He was stubborn. He's not even sure if he can trust himself. The past version of himself probably believes that he would never cross his own timeline.

Then, a thought came to his mind. What if he just took his past-self's place? What would happen if he did that? Can he even do that? Would it cause some sort of paradox? It would be faster and easier than to try to explain everything. Not only that, it would solve the problem of being stuck with two versions of himself.

PEW!

He shot his past-self in the head and he collapsed on the ground. After he did that, he braced himself for the consequences of killing his past-self.

But...

Nothing happened.

Deciding not to waste any time, he quickly stole his past-self's clothes, replacing them with his blood stained ones.

Sure, his past self's clothe did have some of his blood on it, but he made sure to try to get the least amount of blood on it.

To hide his body, he grabbed it and put it in a closet. Maybe he'll get the chance to take care of it later, but he thought it wouldn't be that big of a deal if he left it there. Even if someone finds it, they wouldn't be able to identify him since he doesn't even exist yet. He'll simply would become a John Doe.

After that, he was exhausted, but that didn't matter. He needed to carry on. Following the footsteps that his past-self was going to take, he came across the guy that killed Cavendish. This time, he had the advantage. Without hesitation, he snuck up behind the guy and tackled him down to the ground.

He thought about just shooting the guy in the head and avoiding a confrontation, but he knew that Cavendish would freak out if he did that.

He struggled to keep the guy down, but since he managed to catch him off guard, he wasn't armed. He knew that Cavendish must be nearby now, "CAVENDISH!" he yelled.

Cavendish quickly ran into the room. He saw what was happening and rushed over to help. With both of them holding down the guy, it was easier to keep him down.

"Cuff him!"

Cavendish took out his handcuffs and grabbed the man's hands to handcuff him.

As the man struggled some more, Dakota had no more strength to keep him down. Letting his frustration get to him, he let him go and grabbed a plank of wood nearby. Using the plank, he hit the guy over the head, which, knocked him unconscious.

Both Dakota and Cavendish started to relax a bit when the guy stopped fighting back.

Noticing that Dakota looked exhausted, Cavendish picked up the guy so he can carry him to the time machine. He walked towards the door but turned around to look at Dakota because he wasn't following him. He saw Dakota slouched over with his hands on his knees. He was struggling to breathe properly. Soon after, he threw up a bit.

Cavendish quickly put the guy down and ran towards Dakota placing his hand on his back to try to comfort him.

Feeling Cavendish's hand on his back, he shuddered. It was almost like being touched by a ghost. The only thing he wanted to do right now, was to go home and try to pretend that this didn't happen.

"Dakota," Cavendish said softly.

"I'm fine," Dakota quickly replied and waved Cavendish away. "Get the guy to the car," he coughed, "I'll be there soon, just give me a moment."

"Okay," Cavendish went back to the guy and picked him up. He walked towards the door.

"WAIT!"

Cavendish stopped and turned around.

"Be careful."

"Of course," Cavendish nodded and turned around to bring the guy to the car.

Dakota sat down and groaned. He rubbed his forehead and sighed. This was too much. Would Mr. Block know what he did? Is he going to be fired as soon as they got back to the future? Is there a strange part of Cavendish that knows what happened? Ugh, he did not have time to think about this right now.

He got up and stumbled towards the exit of the building.


	5. Time For Ice Cream

Dakota met up with Cavendish at the time machine. Cavendish already had the guy tied up some more and in the back of the car. He was sitting in the driver's seat. Which, even though Dakota knew that Cavendish didn't have that much experience driving a time machine, he didn't care. He really didn't want to drive right now.

Dakota sat in the front seat.

"Are you feeling better?" Cavendish asked.

"Hm? Oh, yeah," he muttered. He grabbed the water cup, that his past-self got earlier, and chugged it down. "Let's just get this mission done and over with." Dakota turned to look at Cavendish, "Afterwards, we can go get some ice cream, I know this great place in the future that has the best ice cream. It would be my treat."

Cavendish hesitated. "Are you sure you are in good enough health to be attending frivolous things such as getting ice cream?"

Dakota chuckle. A part of him really likes the way Cavendish talks, "Yeah, just a few bruises, nothing serious."

"Okay, that does sound nice," Cavendish started the car.

Dakota smiled, "Cool."

They drove to the police station, threw the guy into the police station, and ran off. It kind of seemed unprofessional, but what else can they do? They couldn't just walk up to a police officer and tell them that they're time travellers and blah blah blah. They also couldn't bring the guy to the future. So, since the guy was already a wanted criminal, they're still going to arrest him. It didn't really matter if two weirdos threw the guy into the police station. It just makes their job way easier.

This time, Dakota drove them back to the future.

Cavendish did question why there were clocks in the timestream, but he didn't know either. Probably someone put them there as a joke or something.

They got back to the future and found out that their mission was a success. The guy ended up spending twenty-one years in jail before dying of some sort of heart condition. Dakota was relieved that the guy didn't get the chance to hurt anyone else.

Afterward, Cavendish convinced Dakota to go see the nurse at the time travel agency. Knowing that Dakota was indeed in good health, they celebrated their first successful mission with some ice cream.

"Welcome to the time travellers club!" Dakota raised his sundae.

Cavendish chuckled and blushed a little bit. He was slightly embarrassed that Dakota said all that stuff out loud. Now people were looking at them.

"Come on Cav," Dakota waved around his sundae.

Cavendish sighed. He picked up his sundae and clank it against Dakota's sundae.

"Masseltoff!" Dakota shouted.

"You mean mazel tov," Cavendish corrected.

"Yeah, that!" Dakota started to devour his sundae. Looking at Cavendish, he felt a bit weird. He knows that they only knew each other for less than a day, but he felt an incredibly strong connection to him. Deep down, he knew that if there was another incident that resulted in Cavendish's death, he'll have no other choice but to go back in time again and save him.


End file.
